Ysleta ISD asks for high school baseball field light in upcoming bond election
ABC-7 looked into why the Ysleta Independent School District wants lighting on its high school baseball fields. It’s a project the November bond would pay for. Currently only Socorro ISD’s Americas High has lights on its baseball field.
The bond would pay for 30 projects, including school renovations, increased campus security and upgraded athletic facilities. That includes new lighting for all high school baseball and softball fields at every one of YISD’s seven high schools.
May’s bond election failed partly because of the size — $450 million. This time around, a bond committee sliced off some the projects, just barely lowering the price tag to $430 million.
Superintendent Dr. Xavier De La Torre said members of the YISD’s bond committee believed lighting on baseball high school fields to be a worthy project, costing just under $5 million.
“Almost every tournament outside El Paso has lights,” said Riverside High baseball coach Jim Melendez. “And I’m talking as close as Van Horn, Pecos, Alpine, Lubbock, Odessa, Midland — you name it — they have lights.”
Baseball and softball players who have to travel to games are pulled out of their sixth, seventh, and eighth period classes for the trip. Their games start at 4 in the afternoon, then end when the sun goes down. The idea is with lights on the field parents could actually see their kids play ball after work. The players could play a full seven innings like the rest of Texas, unlike the four innings they currently play now.
But the biggest benefit of having lights on the baseball field, according to De La Torre, is giving the YISD community something to do after it gets dark.
“I think we can make our campuses more available to community organizations and use it as a way to draw our you the something positive, rather than look for something to do in the evening,” De La Torre said.
Unless voters are 65 years or older, or qualify for the homestead exemption, the bond will raise the tax rate from $1.36 per $100 of home valuation to $1.48.
Early voting ends Friday. The election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
